Pay attention to Mark Robinson. Watch what he says and does. You'll be shocked by the level of his hate. For women. For gays. For teachers. For Native Americans. For the truth.
Pay attention to Mark Robinson. Watch what he says and does. You'll be shocked by the level of his hate. For women. For gays. For teachers. For Native Americans. For the truth.
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I spent a few hours
I spent a few hours catching up on Robinson's public activities. Wow. What a shit show. And so so so so so full of hate. Black Trump.
What fascinates me
What fascinates me about Robinson is that the guy was a nobody just a few months before the election. He had a YouTube channel with, literally, a few dozen views and really no other public presence to speak of.
But, Turning Point USA, the ultra right-wing group active on college campuses and the asshats who first started "Professor Watch Lists" to intimidate and harass faculty they perceived as "liberal", booked Robinson for some speaking appearances and started pushing his candidacy for office.
I looked up his campaign funders at Open Secrets when it became available and it was filled with out of state donors that have given money to people like Ted Cruz, Matt Gaetz, and Margie Taylor Greene. While Robinson's predecessor, Dan Forest, had his funding roots in the extreme evangelical movement, Robinson's funding base is firmly among the GOP donors that keep tossing money at insurrectionists.
There's something more to Robinson's story here that reporters should be digging into, particularly how he was hand-picked for this role and just what the hell he's getting out of it.
Greensboro City Council...
He emerged into the limelight by speaking as a "concerned citizen" at a meeting about curtailing gun shows at the Coliseum. Said he didn't own any guns, but wanted to be able to get one if he needed to.
Right-wing gun-nuts immediately adopted him, and he's been groomed ever since.
I remember that
Yep, I remember that.
I still think that appearance and the publicity push behind it was a setup. Robinson was just one of many angry nobodies that regularly yell at clouds in city council meetings. I remember thinking, at the time, that the attention it received, especially from right-wing social media, smelled suspicious.
Could be...
It did seem weird that somebody who didn't already have a gun would be so upset. Maybe they found him before that? Which is even weirder...
Yep, weird
It looks like Robinson's YouTube page was hidden or removed. Or it's buried in all the other search results I'm getting from channels reposting that Greensboro city council speech and later material.
I do recall that the videos were simple and done in his home with a webcam. There may have been ten or twenty, all done in the couple of years before the Greensboro speech. The content was ranting similar to Diamond and Silk with an evangelical twist, mostly focusing on gun rights, and there might have been a few dozen hits on each video at the time I looked at them. That was around the time Turning Point USA was pushing his appearance at Appalachian State. I didn't find any Twitter account for him at the time.
I didn't save the videos at the time from his account - he just seemed like any other right-wing crackpot.
So, really, the only way someone would have known about him before the Greensboro speech was stumbling into his YouTube channel or something he might have posted online or maybe run into him at some kind of gun rights or other right-wing meeting.
Some of my black friends
Some of my black friends are intrigued by Robinson. He talks about what a good Christian he is, consistently demonizing women and teh gayz. Good stuff, right?
I guess that posture will earn him some credibility, but it will also hurt him among white people who love to hate blacks. An armed following of black zealots is not something your average bubba will be all that excited about.
It'll be interesting to see how Robinson tries to thread the needle. His handlers can't let him go rogue, but he has real potential to turn Kanye on them. Anyone who hates as much as Robinson does -- and who is so dependent on white bigots for funding his campaign -- won't be able to control his rage for long.
About those guns
As discussed above, arms dealers have been celebrating Robinson ever since he arrived on the scene. He's good for a double whammy:
On one hand, Robinson wants to arm black people so they can protect themselves against whatever. At the same time, white people need to arm up as well. Robinson isn't saying it out loud, but there's probably nothing scarier to white folk than a growing army of black folk carrying assault weapons.
It's a full fledged arms race and the winners are guys like Ted Budd.
Follow the money.
More like Madison Cawthorn
Kanye has a long history of mental illness, combined with a long history of bigotry and being an asshole. He's gotten to the point that he can't control himself in public, lacking any self awareness, and is just letting any random thing that pops into his brain go directly to his mouth.
Robinson reminds me of Madison Cawthorn - an inexperienced neophyte thrust into the political spotlight. Both Cawthorn and Robinson are one-note politicians on the core issues of guns, bashing gays and immigrants, and some vague liberal conspiracy about controlling your lives. Robinson adds a layer of evangelical extremism on top of that.
Cawthorn's downfall came when he started talking to far-right wing media outlets away from his handlers, going off-script. I could see the same thing happening with Robinson, where his zeal and inexperience will get him in trouble if he's talking with fellow extremists.
Remember that Robinson's not the guaranteed final candidate for the governor's race on the GOP ticket - he still has to make it through a primary. The moneybags in the state GOP don't seem so enamored with him and might field a candidate that's perceived as less erratic and able to keep their mouth shut at the right time. The Lt Governor's position is basically a do-nothing job that doesn't have much impact on the day to day work that the legislature carries out - the Governor's job is much more high-stakes.
I'm not certain about this, but I have the impression that most of Robinson's backing and financial support is coming from gun nuts here in NC and out of state donors that prop up the GOP's Insurrection Caucus in Congress. They're really just interested in vocal mouthpieces for clips on FoxNews and other right-wing outlets to further their cause.
When primary time rolls around, if the NC GOP leaders are tepid about running Robinson for Governor, I could see his out of state backers getting him to run for a seat in Congress.
Robinson's primary residence is in Colfax in the 6th Congressional district, currently held by Democrat Kathy Manning. Redistricting made it a solidly blue district that includes Greensboro, Winston, and High Point. So, if Robinson quietly changes his residence from Colfax to another district in the lead in to 2024, expect him to run for the US House instead of Governor.
His handlers didn't pay to get him a ghost-written autobiography just to promote him as state-level figure.
Actually, he doesn't have to move
For Congress anyway, the only requirement (for residency) is that he lives in the State. He probably would move to avoid being criticized for not living in x district, but then again he ain't the shiniest spoon in the drawer...
It's always sad to see a
It's always sad to see a professed Christian who is so full of hate.